Rough Days and Consoling Actions
by TheWanderingLily
Summary: Catherine and Vartann comfort one another after each have rough days at work.


**Disclaimer: I do not own CSI or any of its characters.**

**I'm not certain why this story idea popped into my head, but I decided to write it anyway. I guess it comes from the fact that on the show I'd like to see a soft, tender, and comforting moment between the two. The story might be a little out of character. Since they're hasn't really been any moment like that, I'm not certain if it's out of character for the two or not. Let me know what you think, please!**

Catherine was pulling her second double shift in 5 days. She was knee deep in what had started as an amber alert out of Seattle on Valentine's Day and she had just come from the morgue. Her heart was aching for the parents of the little girl that had been led down there to ID the body. She'd left after the parent's sobs had started. She couldn't take it. Cases involving children always got personal for her. They'd caught the bastard that had murdered the girl but that didn't bring her back and Catherine doubted that Valentine's Day for the two adults would ever be the same in the future. She was certain that it would now be about remembering their little girl as much as it was about loving each other.

That had been about 4 hours ago and what she needed now was comfort. She needed Lou.

After stopping in the break room for a cup of much needed coffee, she was making her way into her office to call him when she noticed that half the women she passed in the hallway were smiling at her.

"_Why are they looking at me like that? Do I have something on my face?" _she wondered.

After taking a detour to the women's restroom and finding that everything was in place, she was perplexed. Shrugging it off, she continued to make her way to her office.

When she reached her destination, she noticed that her door was open, which wasn't how she left it. Immediately intrigued, she passed the threshold and stopped when she saw what had been left on her desk.

A vase full of two dozen long stemmed, light pink roses…her favorite.

Lou was spoiling her and she loved it.

She loved that he wasn't overly romantic or showy. To Catherine, he was the perfect combination of masculinity and sensitivity. He knew how to spoil her and it was something he did very well with the simplest things. He also knew her well enough to know when she was having a rough time with something. She'd never been able to fool him. He'd always said that her eyes gave her away.

When she bent to smell the roses, she smiled as she thought of her detective. She loved him. She knew she did, which is why she was wearing his ring on her left hand.

"You know, if we weren't in the lab right now, I would definitely take advantage of your position.," he said as he pulled the door shut behind him, while admiring her frame that was still bent over the desk.

Her smile got even bigger. "Oh would you now, detective?" she asked as she turned around.

"Oh, most definitely," he smirked as he walked towards her and wrapped his arms around her waist as she wrapped hers around his. He placed a soft kiss on her forehead before she laid her head on his chest.

"I heard you had a rough day. Are you okay?" he asked quietly while tightening his arms around her.

Catherine could hear the concern and the worry on the edge of his voice and she could mentally picture the creases in his forehead that would accompany it, just like she had that morning, when he'd called her from a scene. She knew he'd been on a difficult case too, but she didn't know any of the particulars, except that there had been three murders, all of them had been women and that she had assigned Nick to the case. Lou had said that he wanted to call simply because they'd hadn't talked that morning or really at all in the past week, but she'd known something was wrong immediately. There had been a slight edge to his voice and his normally calm tone was rushed, like he couldn't get the words out fast enough.

And now, in the solitude of her office, his arms were wrapped a little bit tighter around her waist than normal, as if he was afraid she would suddenly disappear if he didn't hold on tight enough. She didn't mind but she'd have to call Nick later to find out more details. Lou didn't seem to want to talk about it. Apparently she wasn't the only one who'd had a bad day.

"I'm okay I guess. I just…I don't know Lou. It seems like cases are getting harder for me to handle. It's not so much that the little girl was murdered. I've dealt with that before, but the bastard couldn't even give me a reason as to why he killed her and cases involving children always make me worry about Lindsey." She paused as she glanced at the gift on her desk. "The roses helped though," she replied while lifting her head and placing a gentle and sensuous kiss on his lips. "Thank you." She smiled, "You knew I would love them."

"I had a pretty good idea." he chuckled while looking down at her.

"How did you hear that I had a bad day?"

."Well, I got a call at PD, from Doc Robbins," he began as he brushed a strand of hair that had fallen in front of her eyes and tucked it behind her ear, "who said that my fiancé had connected herself too deeply to a case and that he was a little worried about you. He said that you looked upset and that you left pretty quickly after you got your ID, so I decided to come check on you."

"Thank you." She smiled. They were still standing, holding on to each other, in the middle of her office, which probably would have turned some heads a few months ago. Everyone knew of their relationship now that they were engaged. She loved that it wasn't a secret as it had been when they'd started dating after the stakeout months before. Nick had been the first to hear about it, though that was by accident. They'd forgotten that he was in the room. The rest of the team had found out slowly over the course of about three months. Greg had smiled and made some colorful comments in good humor, Ray and Sara hadn't seemed surprised at all, and Brass had threatened him in the way an older brother would have.

The only one who hadn't liked it was Ecklie. They'd been sitting in the break room with the team discussing a case when Lou had decided that he couldn't put off returning to PD any longer and had leaned over and kissed Catherine goodbye. Ecklie had just happened to walk by at that moment and had witnessed the exchange of affection. Needless to say, he hadn't been happy. He'd become instantly angry with the pair and had threatened to suspend them both. Catherine could remember Lou's eyes darkening as he approached Ecklie.

"_You don't have the power or the authority to suspend us both."_

"_Oh really? And why can't I?"_

"_Well for one, technically you're not my boss so the authority to suspend me lies in the hands of Captain Brass, who doesn't look all that worried judging by the smile on his face," Lou replied casting a glance at Brass still sitting at the table behind them who was, indeed, smiling, "and two, there isn't any rule that states that two colleagues of different departments can't enter into an intimate relationship. Since Catherine is employed in the lab and I'm employed in the PD, there isn't anything you can do about it," he'd finished._

Still lost in her thoughts, Catherine could remember herself cringing. Though she loved Lou's sarcastic comments and his strong-minded opinions, she'd had a small moment of panic when Ecklie had opened his mouth to reply, but to her surprise, he hadn't had anything to say. She'd smiled when Lou had turned and crossed the room towards her and placed a long, deep, and sweet kiss to her lips, that she'd happily returned with equal fervor. He'd then proceeded to leave and had brushed past Ecklie, who had still been standing in the doorway. Without saying anything, Ecklie had turned around and left, going in the opposite direction of what he'd originally came. The team had burst out laughing, unable to contain themselves any longer. Unlike today, her mood had been one of happiness for the rest of the week.

When she returned from her thoughts, she realized that Lou was looking at her with an amused expression.

"What?" she asked still smiling.

"You were smiling so I'm guessing you were in a happy place?"

"I was indeed," she replied with a chuckle, "but I have an idea that would make me happier."

"Hmmm…what's that?" He asked while his expression changed from one of amusement to a quizzical one.

"Let's go home, order some pizza, and curl up on the couch and watch a movie."

Now it was his turn to smile.

"Sounds like a plan. Come on, let's go home." They untangled themselves from one another and Lou moved to open the door and leaned against it as Catherine put the open files on her desk away.

She paused when she realized what folder was on the bottom still open. The face of the little girl stared back at her. She felt the sting of sadness and pain but she quickly dismissed it when she glanced at the roses. Though the case would bother her for awhile, she wasn't dying today. She was going home to a night of relaxation with her fiancé.

She grabbed her phone and keys and placed them in her purse. Walking towards the door, she stopped next to Lou, reached behind him, and twisted the lock on her office door and walked out of the room with the detective right behind her. She smiled as he caught up to walk beside her and linked his fingers through hers as they walked out the lab together, hand in hand.

The ride home was uneventful but amusing. Lou had found his favorite classic rock station on the radio and was silently mouthing the words and drumming his thumbs against the steering wheel, unaware of her scrutiny. After a long day, she always found his car antics funny. She didn't understand why but she was certain that it had something to do with the facts that Lou would be embarrassed to be caught dancing in the driver's seat of the car with anyone but her and that in the car with her, he wasn't the usual hard detective, but simple Lou, like he was in the comfort of their home. The one that only she ever saw. However, she was still worried. Despite his obvious amusement with the radio station, his eyes were clouded and she could tell that something was bothering him and she wanted to know what it was.

As they pulled up to their home, Lou parked and they both exited the car, and strode across the short distance to the front door. After unlocking it and entering the house, Lou immediately dropped onto the couch and grabbed the phone from the nearby table while Catherine made her way upstairs.

"Babe, what kind of pizza do you want? The usual?" he yelled up the stairs to her retreating figure referring to the half pepperoni and half Hawaiian pizza that was their usual order.

"Sounds good," she yelled back.

Lou busied himself with the task of ordering their dinner. This would only be the second dinner they'd had that week together. They'd barely seen each other since they were each on tough cases and the PD and lab were tapped out.

He'd found the number for the pizzeria, but as he was entering it into the phone, he became slightly distracted when his eyes found the wedding magazine that was perched on the coffee table, causing him to think about how close he'd thought he'd come to losing that piece of his future.

He'd been on a different case for the past week. There had been three homicides, all the same scenario. A husband was incapacitated while his wife was dragged away and taken right out of the couple's home. They'd find the woman later, beaten and abused, in an alley across town with no breath left in her, leaving the husband to mourn her death. He and Nick had been on the case together and Lou had become immediately fixated on the body laying facing down in the pavement of the last woman they found. She was a redhead with a small, slender frame and his mind, now panicked, became aware that he'd hadn't spoken to Catherine that morning. Both pulling doubles, they hadn't seen each other.

Apparently Nick had caught his reaction.

"_Man, are you okay?"_

_Lou had only been vaguely aware of his question. He'd managed to mumble out something but he hadn't been aware of what that had been either. He guessed that Nick had put the pieces together as to why he was suddenly rooted to the spot, unable to move, as Nick led him back the short distance across the crime scene tape to his car. Nick had looked more than a little concerned._

"_Call Catherine, make sure you know that she's all right. We can't do much until the coroner comes to process the body anyway." This time, Nick had gotten his attention by mentioning Catherine's name, and he nodded in reply to the younger man. He'd had her number punched in his phone before the CSI had crossed back under the tape._

He'd hadn't realized how terrified he'd been until a sudden wave of relief washed over him when he heard her voice come through the phone. He could remember how his own voice had come out quickly and sounding breathless. He also knew that being a CSI and his lover, that she would instantly pick up on his unusual tone. He'd been right and he hated it when she was right.

"_Lou, what's wrong?"_

"_Nothing, I'm alright. Just tired. Wanted to talk to you a little while waiting on the coroner since we didn't see each other this morning." _

She had paused for a second on the other end of the phone and he knew that he'd been busted, but to his relief, she hadn't pushed the issue. If she had, he wasn't sure what he'd have said anyway.

They ended the conversation a few minutes later when Super Dave showed up to process the scene, but his heart still hadn't slowed much. He suspected that he wouldn't calm down until he actually saw her and he was grateful when Doc Robbins had called him with his worries.

He'd been right again. As soon as he walked into her office and saw her, another wave of relief had coursed through him and he'd finally relaxed, but not all the way. He'd hung on to her as if his life depended on it and maybe it did now.

He hadn't realized, while being lost in his thoughts, that she'd been upstairs for over ten minutes until she touched his shoulder, making him jump and effectively causing the phone to fall to the floor.

"Nick told me what happened today."

"You called him?"

"I did." she sighed as he looked up at her instead of at the floor where his eyes had been fixated when she'd came downstairs. "You're unusually tense, you're jumpy, and now you're staring off into space."

"You just had to be a CSI didn't you," he smiled, causing her to laugh.

"My observations have nothing to do with my job description." she smiled back. "I would have noticed regardless. We are about to get married you know."

Despite the happy reference, his smile faded as he looked at her, thinking once again about the panic he'd felt when he'd thought that she was dead. That he had lost her.

"Lou, talk to me." her voice was soft and he could tell that it was now her turn to be worried. They'd both had rough days.

"I thought you were gone. I panicked." His voice had become a whisper.

For the second time that day, her heart began to ache and she had the sudden desire to hold on to him as tight as she could and never let go, like he had done to her not too long ago. To show him that she was still here.

She closed the small distance between them and straddled his hips to sit on his lap, with her legs on either side of him. She wanted his attention and she knew that she had it. She leaned down and placed a bruising and deep kiss on his lips. The kiss instantly became more heated and Catherine felt Lou's tongue trace her bottom lip, silently demanding entrance as his arms wound tightly around her again, effectively pulling her as close to his body as he could get her. She immediately granted him access, knowing just how much release they both needed and as his tongue found hers, she melted into the kiss and allowed him to take control.

He knew what she was doing. He needed to feel her and she knew that there was one way that she could show him that she wasn't going anywhere, that would help more than any words she could ever offer.

They stayed that way, tangled together and tongues dueling, for how long, he didn't know, but when he pulled apart for air, he was awarded with a groan full of protest.

He quickly buried his head in the hollow of her neck to keep her close and to catch his breath.

"Hey Cath?" he breathed out

"Hmm?"

"I forgot to order dinner." he chuckled out.

"I think we're way past caring about dinner," she replied as she ground against the prominent bulge growing in his pants, making him groan.

He loved this. The closeness they had with one another and the affect that they had on each other. He could feel her rapid heartbeat against his skin and for the first time that day, he was relaxed.

"_Well most of me is relaxed," he thought, referring to the straining feeling down below that was only getting worse. _

"How about we skip dinner and a movie and save that for tomorrow?" she said with a mischievous grin.

"I can support this plan." he smiled as he stood up quickly, supporting Catherine with his hands firmly planted on one of his favorite parts of her anatomy.

"Hey Lou?" her voice had turned soft again while mimicking his question from earlier.

"Hmm?"

"I love you."

He laughed, "I love you back."

And with that, he carried her upstairs, both with the intent that they were going to hold on to each other with no intention of ever letting go.


End file.
